Right to work in Ohio? Niche panel will consider

COLUMBUS – A niche legislative panel will consider adding right to work to the Ohio constitution, although the proposal — submitted by an Ohio resident and obtained by Gannett Ohio — appears unlikely to pass.

The Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission is reviewing the state constitution to make recommendations to the Legislature on subjects such as paying for schools and legislative term limits. The group hasn't solicited suggestions from community members, but is open to receiving them, Executive Director Steven Hollon said.

Last month, the panel received its first two suggested amendments from outside the commission. The first is a right-to-work amendment, which would prohibit mandatory union membership at workplaces. The second would prohibit the use of "public resources" in collecting union dues from public employees' paychecks — essentially, prohibiting automatic deductions of dues into labor organizations' coffers.

The amendment is likely to receive at least one hearing with one of the commission's committees, Hollon said.

But it's unlikely to pass the full commission, said Sen. Bill Coley, R-Liberty Township, a commission member. That's because any recommendation to the Legislature must receive a two-thirds vote by the full commission, whose partisan members are divided evenly between Republicans and Democrats.

"I think we should look at everything that citizens have an interest in," Coley said. Still, "the vote required is such that I don't think that anything that's politically charged like (right to work) would stand much of a chance of passing the committee."

The commission isn't the proper venue for a right-to-work proposal, although the group will consider the proposals, said Rep. Emilia Sykes, an Akron Democrat on the commission.

"I am one of those people that is protective of what is coming into and out of the constitution," she said. "Generally, my perspective is to try to trim the fat, not to add on additional parts."

Twenty-five states, including Indiana and Michigan, have passed right-to-work laws.

Ohio has had its own flirtation with anti-labor legislation. Republicans in 2011 passed Senate Bill 5, which limited the collective-bargaining rights of public employees, but a referendum overturned the law that fall. Some Ohio House Republicans then introduced right-to-work bills in 2013, but those failed to gain momentum in the Legislature.

A group of right-to-work proponents has been gathering signatures since 2012 to put the issue on the Ohio ballot at some point.

The right-to-work amendments were submitted to the constitutional commission by Matt Mayer, a Columbus-area resident who used to work for the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank and who now runs the free-market think tank Opportunity Ohio. Mayer could not be reached for comment.

The commission's Coordinating Committee, which includes Coley and Sykes, is scheduled to decide on Thursday which committee will consider Mayer's amendments. Committees have 11 members.

Those with six Republicans and five Democrats have a Democratic chairperson, and those with a Democratic majority have a Republican chairperson. The committee chairperson, with likely input from committee members, will decide how to vet the amendments.

Committees meet every two months to discuss various issues, so right to work might not come before a committee for months or even a year, Hollon said.